Nearing the belay while scoping terrain for my lead on the next pitch
I wrote this article to be published elsewhere, but was told that is was potentially dangerous by an online editor, and Climbing magazine was keen, but had recently ran a very similar concept as one of their tech-tips. At least this second rejection validated the idea as: A.somewhat worth listening to and B:not completely crazy. Coincidentally, these are the only two prerequisites I use for filtering out potential blog material, so I figured I might as well post this here and see what others thought.
Keep it simple with the fastest and easiest way to use your new-style belay device.
On multi-pitch climbs, I like to take turns leading. I hate having to flip, or re-stack ropes at the belay, and after a stressful lead, I am always happy to follow a pitch. And as a naturally-cluttered person, I'll do anything to simplify things at the belay. That's why I like to take full advantage of my auto-locking belay device by using 'the swap'. An auto-locking belay device has become standard equipment on multi-pitch climbs, with nearly every company now making a lightweight device that can be hung from the anchor. These automatically lock off the rope should the second climber fall, but offer another, little-used advantage beyond hands-free belaying.
Simplicity - When swapping leads on a multi-pitch route, both climbers should have a hangable belay device like the Petzl Reverso, Trango B-52, or Black Diamond ATC Guide. The first climber leads the pitch and belays her follower like normal, by hanging her belay device from the anchor and bringing in rope in hands-free mode. When the follower reaches the belay, he should not bother with a daisy chain or other personal anchor slings. Instead, leave the desired length of rope out from the belay device to facilitate easy gear exchange or comfortable distance from the anchor. The follower can hang from the belay device--already in place-- using the rope, which was already tied into. The follower is locked off with a dynamic connection to the anchor, and avoids fiddling with extra gear.
Speed - The follower will lead the next pitch, and so he should begin to rack gear or quickdraws on his harness. The belayer should grab the team's second belay device off her partner's harness, and clip it into her own belay loop. The rope is already stacked with the new leader's end on top, so the belayer should immediately put her partner on lead-belay as he finishes racking his gear. The new lead climber is still hanging from the locked-off belay device he was brought up on, and now on lead-belay from his partner with the second device.
Patagonia, approaching the belay in a mountain range where efficient changeovers seemed vital.
Swap It- When the new leader is ready to begin, he confirms that he's on lead belay from his partner, and then un-clips from the hanging belay device, grabbing it to bring with him up the pitch. The climbers have now swapped belay devices, and completed a simple and speedy belay changeover without having to re-stack the rope, use a daisy chain/personal anchor, or carry more than one belay device each on the climb.
And as proof that I can occasionally get something published in the real world, the current edition of Climbing features a short article I wrote about collecting water and staying hydrated in the mountains. If anyone has seen it, I'd appreciate any feedback about that article, or the one above.
Leaving the city of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand (the city actually sits among the Himalayas' most SE foothills), Allison and I caught a flight to Bangkok, I got miserably sick in the airport, and we caught a second flight to the town of Nakhon Si Thamarat. Why go to Nakhon? Because the flight was cheaper than the usual spots of Krabi and Phuket... that's why.
Even our trusty tourist guidebooks had little to say about this sleepy, backwater town. Tucked firmly OFF the backpacker/climber radar, it nevertheless provided a neat insight into traditional Thai culture, and allowed us to save $70 on the flight. From Nakhon, we caught a cheap minivan ride to the adventure jump-off town of Krabi.
Along the way, our minivan picked up passengers and packages from roadside stands and food stalls. It was a combination taxi, pony express, pizza delivery, and news/mail carrier. We had originally planned to catch a longtail boat directly to the Tonsai Beach area, but I had a fever of 103 and felt like I wouldn't be able to belay, let alone climb. We checked into a cheap hostel in Krabi and I drank tea and ached in bed for 3 days while Allison used her access to medical journals to diagnose the problem: Dengue Fever. I guess the Thai Mosquitos are a little more dangerous than the swarms I am used to in the North Cascades. It took all my energy to walk down the hall at our hostel and use the computer in order to submit a Mazamas climbing club grant application by New Years Eve, but after another day of rest, I felt well enough to head off once again.
Catching a longtail boat in Thailand is a fascinating experience, and one that baffles the economist in me. In Krabi, there are various folks running around the town, not even close to the pier, who suggest/cajole/persuade you to take a boat to basically anywhere that the boats will run to. If you agree to go, or even if you had already been planning for months to go, you are pointed generally toward the dock, to which you may already be headed. At the dock, you are again asked, probably several times by various boat drivers, if you want to take a boat somewhere. It was unclear how(or if) certain drivers 'claim' certain passengers, and how the drivers know we were approached by someone in town. Eventually a boat will arrive, and depending on the energy of the boat men, your skill at bartering, and the current flow of passengers, you'll need to have between 4 and 8 people present in order for your boat to go with the standard price of 150 Baht ($4.75) per person for a ride to Tonsai Beach.
After leaving the dock, our boat driver shouted out to a chubby middle-aged Dutch couple walking along the beach, and got them to join us as last-minute passengers. We couldn't figure out how the money for this business is divided up, who keeps track of what, and how they pay people for "referring" passengers who already planned on taking the boat. Just another mystery in Thailand that I'll have to solve on the next trip...
Tonsai Beach is the climbing epicenter of Thailand, and sits on the Phra Nang Peninsula, a jut of land with four separate beaches and no road access to the mainlad. Life on Tonsai is good. Lodging is moderately-priced by Thai standards, but very cheap my western standards ($8/night for a bungalow, $22/night for a nice hotel room). The food was awesome, with favorites being freshly-caught shark and tuna steaks, grilled, and served with salad ($2.75) or crepe-like pancakes, filled with banana, nutella, and Peanut butter ($1.15).
Here Mr. Pancake makes me an apple/cinnamon/honey treat
As I slowly recovered from Dengue fever (The Dengue, as we called it) we explored many of the limestone walls on the peninsula. Apart from lots of single pitch climbs on stalagtites, pockets, and even cracks, Allison and I climbed 5 pitches routes called "The Wave" and "Humanality.
Allison got to lead the last pitch on "The Wave", gently overhung with big pockets and tufas.
We met some great folks in Tonsai. Here's our friend Sun-Ho following the last pitch of The Wave. It was his first multipitch route and he had a blast 500' up off the beach.
A few things to know about Tonsai:
Food is VERY cheap by western standards and ok by Thai standards. The restaurant where the Tonsai loop road meets the ocean has the BEST seafood grill. Big steaks of Tuna and Shark, with salad, for $2.75
The other bestp food is the open-air cart/booth/stall near where the loop road meets the beach. Try the baked fried rice with chicken for $1.10. The fruit/Muesli/Yogurt bowl is a good deal as well.
The Andaman hotel and restaurant plays free movies every night. They are typically awful
There's a really good Indian restaurant a few minutes up the trail to East Railay. It's expensive by Thai standards, but cheaper than Indian food in the USA.
Without sunblock, you'll get sunburned climbing in the shade if your route faces the ocean.
Barter with the boat men for a price of 150 Baht to get there from Krabi. There were originally only 4 passengers and he was asking for 250 Baht each. When we told him we would just catch a ride the next day, he dropped the price to 150 Baht.
Most hotels and bungalow operations will drop the price of your room if you negotiate, especially if you will be there for a while.
DO NOT drink out of many disposable water bottles. Trash often gets piled up on Tonsai, and these 1-liter bottles are among the biggest culprits. We used Aquamira drops to purify tapwater in a few minutes, which meant that we went through two water bottles the whole time. If you don't have a way to pruify the tap water, buy a 5-gallon jug of clean water, and refill one smaller bottle as you go. This is cheaper and produces FAR LESS garbage.
Deepwater soloing proved scarier than I had guessed, partly because most of the harder moves were 30-40' off the water, and I knew that the higher I climbed, the longer my plunge would be. I preferred the deepwater "bouldering"
A personal favorite moment was onsighting "Pearl Jam", a 30m 5.12b hand crack that overhangs 10m and puts you high above the whole Tonsai scene. Cleaning this route while being lowered resulted in a massive swing and sudden intimatacy with some nearby palms. I should have had the forethought to grab a coconut as a reward.
Bulletin board on Tonsai Beach always had something worth reading:
Most afternoons it rained for a bit. We were told this was unusual, but I liked it, and it kept things cool.
Washington's own apple juice
From Tonsai, we caught a ferry boat to the Ko Lanta, and spent the final few days of our trip motorbiking around the quiet island, snorkeling in the Andaman Sea, and enjoying the last lazy moments.
An overnight train ($20) brought us all the way back to Bangkok and our flight across the Pacific. This fancy restaurant will make you a Pb&J for about 3x the prices of delicious Thai food you can buy next door.
For Christmas, Allison and I went into bustling Chiang Mai and spent several hours running around a busy, smelly, crowded, and amazing market, buying food for a traditional Thai feast. The girls were stoked, we were stuffed...
We learned that the smaller the pepper, the spicier it is, as the capsaicin and seeds are more concentrated. Also, green is spicier than red...
Rigging up for the party, the rope was good for something more than tug-of-war.
The girls at this orphanage came from Mynamar, and surrounding hill tribes in Thailand. Some were there because parents were in jail or on drugs, and others had been refugees from fighting in Myanmar. The orphanage was an awesome place, that provided a safe home for them from age 4 to 18. After graduating high school, the girls are encouraged to go to the local college or learn a trade, and the orphanage helps them to network a future that it far different from where they would have ended up without it.
From there, it was sightseeing, cooking classes with a Thai TV chef, and indoor climbing in Chiang Mai to burn off some of that cocnut milk.
Panang Curry flavored Larabars? Important note: If you've just made concentrated Panang Curry paste from scratch, by hand-mixing the ingredients, definitely also wash your hands before peeing. Good Lord...
Che says we ought to curtail global warming, but his stance seems nuanced. What are those quotes hiding?Why wont he just commit?
The city of temples lived up to its name, but eventually they all started to look the same to us.
With our time in Chiang Mai over, we caught a longtail boat from Krabi to Tonsai Beach's famous limestone cliffs!
If some of the pictures from this post look a bit better than the traditional Herrington standard, it is owing to a new camera, rather than any increase in photographic abilities. I bought myself a Canon S90 for Christmas. Thanks to several knowledgeable friends who gave camera advice, they all have excellent photography to view:
Garrett Grove's Bellingham-Based Photography
Hardware stores in Thailand give out free popcorn and calendars, just like in the states. That's a definite plus for globalization. Today I was enlisted as a driver for some of the girls at the orphanage. This meant driving a truck with no power steering down the left-hand side of roads filled with motorbikes, motorized noodle carts, and regular traffic. And to top things off, there were 17 girls jammed into the back of the truck. Luckily my left-hand driving days of New Zealand are coming back to me, and everyone was safe and sound.
I just heard from the American Alpine Club that I was selected as a winner of one of the 2009 Mountain Fellowship Grants for young climbers. It will go a long way toward paying for an upcoming trip. I'm joining my old climbing friend Nate Farr on an expedition in the Spring or Summer. Nate was among the first people I ever climbed with, and we met the day before classes began during my first year at Western Washington University in the fall of 2004. Nate's been up to some amazing ice climbing lately, butI bought my first rock climbing shoes from him back when I began. I remember Nate was leading the first time I went "sport climbing", which consisted of a 120' sandy slab, with 5 rusty bolts in it, along the ocean in Bellingham. THANK YOU to the AAC, which means dues-paying AAC Members.
A few months ago, I climbed the Naked Edge in Eldorado Canyon State Park, with a couple friends from Trango Climbing. They were out there to help rig camera stuff, cheer on, and be awed by the other ascent of the route that morning. The other group was three local climbers, one of whom, Erik Weihenmayer, is blind. A Boulder-ite named Cedar Wright filmed the video of their climb, and you can see our team above theirs in some of the panned-back shots.
The same filmer/editor also composed this video with photos and film that Sol, Jens, and myself had taken on a new route last summer on Washington's Mt. Stuart. Having tried a little bit to make/edit these kinds of videos, I am impressed with the ones that Cedar ends up with.
And finally, in a fully non-edited format, here is my lovely wife doing battle with the Geico gecko's little brother... guess who wins.
Since we aren't climbing here yet, we've been using our climbing gear for lots of other things. This morning we had a serious jump rope competition using the climbing rope, and then things switched to tug-of-war, Blake vs the entire orphanage. I wonder how many kN of force we put on the rope?
After flights from Denver to Chicago to Tokyo to Bangkok, Allison and I rode 2 light-rails trains in Bangkok (one above ground, one below) to the city train station, where we caught a passenger train bound for Chiang Mai, in Northern Thailand's Himalayan foothills.
We'll be here until Christmas, volunteering at an orphanage where girls from the nearby rural communities can come to live, receive an education, and learn frisbee from "pharang" (westerners) like us.
The road in Chiang Mai
Views from the train
We bought construction supplies at Home Mart, amid the giant neon busses.
Allison bivies in the Tokyo Airport, small children tickle her (exposed) toes...
The other day someone asked me about my four or five favorite pieces of gear. One of them is definitely Tyvek. Maybe it's an internet Faux-Paus to plagiarize oneself, but I haven't let societal norms stop me this far... Here are my thoughts on Tyvek as previously published online. It makes me wonder who else uses gear that is
Free
Not designed for climbing
And puts it to good use. I'd love to hear other ideas or examples.
As a financially-challenged (read: cheap) student and outdoor addict, I’m known to take extreme cost-saving measures in pursuit of new gear. And by working my summers at the northern terminus of the Pacific Crest Trail, I was exposed to a full array of quirky-to-clever homemade equipment all tested during a season from Mexico to Canada. One of the most memorable items I came across was a simple frameless backpack made of Tyvek, a waterproof cloth used by carpenters and creative climbers.
I began experimenting with the material and had my personal confirmation into the cult of Tyvek adherents three summers ago in Washington State’s North Cascades. My climbing partner and I were traversing a ridge of unclimbed pinnacles, culminating in a new route on Bonanza Peak (9,511 ft.), one of the range’s largest mountains. After jettisoning the weight of sleeping bags and a tent, we spent consecutive nights shivering in our makeshift bivy of backpacks, down jackets, and a Tyvek sheet. I had the material trimmed to an ideal size (8 feet by 6 feet for two people) and it kept us fully sheltered from wind and rain while adding just 1.8 ounces per square yard to our packs.
Our route - a traverse of the unclimbed crest from Dark to Bonanza Peak.
Necessity is often credited as the mother of invention. If this is true, then invention’s stepmother, godmother, or doting grandmother is surely the almighty dollar. Created in 1955 by DuPont researcher Jim White, the invention of Tyvek was no exception, with the material soon becoming a dependable money-maker for DuPont. While outdoor-specific creations appeal to a tiny market segment, items like Tyvek immediately appeal to a broader and hence far more lucrative market. And outdoor junkies would be loath to ignore such products, despite their presence on the shelves of Home Depot rather than REI. As it turns out, this cheap, light, waterproof, and modifiable material has innumerable uses for weight-conscious travelers of all ilk.
Even if you haven’t used or even heard of Tyvek, you have almost certainly seen it. Covering the insulation and inner-walls of modern buildings, long white rolls of the cloth can be found at construction sites worldwide. Its cost in bulk from building-supply stores is negligible compared with outdoor-specific silnylon tarps, and I’ve had success on several occasions just stopping by a construction site and asking for a piece. Initially stiff (and annoyingly loud in the wind), the material softens and becomes more pliable with extended use, repeated folding, or one soap-less cycle in the washing machine.
Rather than purchasing a footprint for my two-person tent, I simply use the free sheet of Tyvek. The same piece doubles as a floor for my Black Diamond Betalight Shelter, keeping things dry and clean on sand, snow, or mud. The white color of the material also makes it ideal to spread out and sort gear, pack, or locate small items that would be lost against a darker background. And as a climber, I would rather flake out my nice new rope on a piece of free Tyvek than pay $30 or $40 for a similar nylon rope tarp.
For short trips (one or two nights), I have also experimented with using Tyvek as a modified bivy sack. By folding the sheet in half and closing the two edges with duct tape, one can quickly make a human-sized envelope. My first trip to the North Cascades' Gunsight Range ended with an August blizzard and a cold night huddling in my Tyvek cocoon, but I stayed dry as the snow piled around me. Cardiovascular and comedic benefits of this design are derived as you engage in the full body contortions needed to wriggle your sleeping-bag-clad self through the opening. The material doesn’t breathe as well as traditional bivy bags, but any inconvenience or dampness should be negligible on short outings.
Although the material’s weight, durability, and resistance to wind or water make it exceedingly versatile, it does lack a few of the extras featured on specialty tarps and shelters. Tyvek is packaged as a large roll, lacking any grommets or tie-off points. Though not often a problem, those wanting an ultralight shelter or windscreen should reinforce the corners with double-layer duct tape or Seam Grip before creating a hole in the material for tiedown points. Alternatively, you can go the route of a do-it-yourself grommet kit, but it will add an additional few ounces.
After several months with Tyvek instead of expensive alternatives, your pack should feel lighter and your wallet heavier – something all travelers can agree on. Additionally, the memories of you and your partner waiting out a storm in your human-sized envelopes will inevitably strengthen the friendship, allowing it to last as long as your coveted Tyvek.
For fans of the American Alpine Journal, or anyone who likes to read about mountaineering exploits, the 2009 edition is now already partly online, with articles and color photos at your E-fingertips. Here's the submission from a trip a I took to Alaska in July with Jason Nelson.
With some ski boots (liners) baking in my oven alongside a batch of muffins, I am wondering if my boots will smell like pumpkin or my muffins will taste like boot? Either way, I am getting excited for some skiing!
I have an idea for a multi-sport 'Rado outdoors day, involving biking, fly fishing, rock climbing, ice climbing, mountain skiing, and XC skiing, all in one day. Potentially with no car between activities. It could be doable in Clear Creek Canyon, ten miles from my house. If I do it, it will be on my trusty Alpine Touring Skis. I chose A/T skis over Telemark skis because the setup is more climber-friendly and easier to learn, but I do have a twinge of jealousy when I see a really smooth and graceful Tele skier heading down the hill. On that note, here is a HILLARIOUS video expressing some of those same sentiments. The music starting at 1:38 goes out to a certain friend. Enjoy Bro!
Actually, they are both basically commodities. Homogeneous, interchangeable products with little difference between the item from one apple orchard (or rope weaver) to the next. Anyone who tells you that a certain climbing rope is "the best" or far superior (or inferior) to others is probably obligated to have that viewpoint by dint of employment for a rope company, or free ropes provided by a given company. And as ropes are both expensive and expendable, they make up a pretty significant cost for climbers.
The veteran climbers I know think a rope is a rope is a rope. Determine what length and width you want, and buy the cheapest one you can find. Has there ever been a route or peak that was climbed because the rope was a 9.4mm Bluewater, not a 9.4mm PMI? Sure Chris sent with a Sterling, and said it made a difference, but I have my doubts. One could make the same case about jackets, gloves, carabiners, etc but the difference among equally-sized ropes is far less than any other type of equipment. I've used ropes from just about all the mainstream manufacturers, and can't really notice any overall differences in handling or durability. If the labels were removed and I was belaying blindly, I have NO confidence that I would be able to tell one from the other or would consistently prefer the ropes of a single manufacturer. And just like I've never had one fuji apple that was much worse (or better) than any other, I've never used a 10.2mm climbing rope that felt, or lasted, much differently than the others. Do all these companies use the same rope-weaving machines in the first place?
Ignoring brands is not to say that different rope types don't matter. If I'm eating a snack and want to cover my apple slices in peanut butter, I'm going to choose a different type of apple than I would for making a pie. In this way, I'd choose a different length and width of rope (or different rope system) for a climb depending on its length, ice vs rock, descent, number of climbers, approach, etc. But once I settle on which length and width I'll need, I'm basically interested in price.
There are a few other small differences, but none which I think are worth paying a whole lot more for:
Dry coatings are somewhat helpful, but don't bother paying for one if just using your rope for rock climbing during nice weather. That's probably 90% of users. Likewise, no dry coating is going to keep your rope from getting saturated in this kind of rappel.
Light-colored ropes show up well in photos and maintain a sharper contrast to their middle mark.
Middle marks are very useful. But if that on-sale rope doesn't have one, then use a sharpie or sew dental floss through the sheath rather than paying an extra $20.
Bi-Pattern ropes (changing color at the halfway point) are handy if you want to tie into both ends and use a single rope with half-rope technique, however...
Finding the middle point (color change location) on a Bi-Pattern rope piled on a belay ledge or rope tarp is a huge pain, and actually takes way longer than finding the middle point when this spot is marked on a one-pattern rope.
If you're about to make multiple rappels on a rope with a bad middle mark, grab a band-aid, a piece of tape, or some chalk, and mark the middle. These will last through a surprising number of rappels.
Metolius/Monster ropes sew two pieces of orange floss through the rope's middle, and one 10m from each end. You can see and feel these. Smart...
Some folks want a low impact force in order to minimize the potential for marginal gear pulling from the rock/ice. I've never paid much attention to these, maybe just because I'm not brave enough to climb routes with high fall-factor potential on very dicey gear. If in these situations, I think using a screamer and having an attentive/dynamic belayer would help just as much as using a rope with a lower impact force.
I'm curious if anyone really does think certain ropes brands are better or worse than others. As for now, I'll stick with whatever is on sale. And remember, the best rope to use is always your partner's. Happy rope buying!
Sunny days and quick approaches. This is winter in the 'rado.
I've had a great few days around Denver, enjoying rock and ice climbing, and starting work at an Italian restaurant only 7 blocks from home.
Last week I teamed up with Justin Selmanson who works at Trango, and we climbed "The Naked Edge" in Eldorado Canyon.
The route follows the sun/shade line, up the center of the photo.
I lead 6 of the 7 pitches and had a great time watching the party below us, which included a blind climber. Yep, Eric Weihenmayer and 2 others did the Naked Edge right behind us, and moved very fast. Their climb was filmed from several locations around the park, and Cedar Wright had fixed ropes for some close-up footage. I think the video may end up with other clips here. If you scroll down that site a bit, you'll see a video Cedar edited from our route on Mt. Stuart in July. On the walk off we ran into Malcolm Daly, also of Trango, who had us pose and look scared. It was pretty natural for me.
On the weekend I made my second trip to Thunder Ridge, a hidden area of beautiful granite face climbing. I was with Canadian Gordon Mcarthur, and we had a good time on the massively-overhanging "G-Route" and the only slightly overhanging "Reptile Tears".
Reptile Tears is 100' of overhung patina edges and flakes, is rated 5.10+ and protects with one set of stoppers. Amazing route.
Yesterday, my friend Jason Killgore roped me into ice climbing at Lincoln Falls, an area near Breckenridge. We had a good time on a half-dozen easy pitches of fat ice, and a bit of mixed terrain, leaving at noon so I could start work that afternoon.
During cold snaps, ice is reputed to form in Clear Creek Canyon, with would make for a 15-minute drive from my front door. I hope it happens this year.
Nearing the belay while scoping terrain for my lead on the next pitch
